posted on March 28, 2001 04:53:22 PM
What's been your biggest disappointment among the items you've bought on eBay?
I've probably bought 500+ items on ebay and have been very satisfied with 99% of them. But the one that will always stick with me is the beautiful red European leather jacket that I paid $160 for. 'Fits a size 20'. Yeah, right. Actually the european size converted to approximately an american size 14. Seller said 'too bad, it fit me and I'm a size 20' (she must have looked like a sausage in it). I still have the jacket just to remind me to never buy clothes without measurements.
posted on March 28, 2001 05:28:02 PM
I bought a costume jewelry lot that looked pretty good in the picture. It was described as good vintage jewelry. When I received it, it was maybe 6 months old junk jewelry, $1.00 at the mall junk jewelry.
The seller remarked, "Well, I never said it was great vintage jewelry".
posted on March 28, 2001 05:37:39 PM
probably the most disappointing thing was a Edwardian era nightgown that was described as have a chest size of 42" I purchased it because you don't see many larger sized antique clothing items. Well, the nightgown came and it was beautiful, and the chest did measure 42" but the armholes and sleeves were about the equivalent of a modern size 2 and my 13 year old niece who wears a size 5/6 could not even get it on. I guess it was for someone with small wrists and a big chest! Hey Executive Girl....I gotta Edwardian nightgown for your favorite customer...lol.
posted on March 28, 2001 05:50:06 PM
I don't purchase a lot off ebay - mostly because I'm trying to get rid off stuff, not add more - but I can honestly say that other than the few brand new items I have purchased, I have been disappointed to some degree on just about every purchase I've made.
Why? Mostly because the condition is never described accurately. It's almost always much worse than the seller admits to in the auction description.
My #1 disappointment was a 1970's small metal trash can made by the Chien Co that had Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy in baseball gear on one side. My husband is a baseball nut and also likes Peanuts, so it seemed perfect for his office. The description made it sound near mint and the Priority postage charge was $10.00. I knew that was excessive for the item (I had just sold the same can with a different design!), but I really wanted it so I wasn't going to quibble.
The entire transaction stunk. I used Paypal to pay for it the same day I won the auction. The seller lived about 60 miles away from me and it took 10 days for me to finally receive it in a grungy, beat up box with filthy packing materials. He over-insured it just to bring the shipping costs up to nearly $8.00. I guess the other $2.00 was to cover the cost of the garbage he packed it in. But most disappointing was the condition. Nothing like described. I was s-o-o-o disappointed!
posted on March 28, 2001 07:26:01 PM
The last card I need for my Unlimited, Magic The Gathering set. I have purchased three copies of the card on eBay. All were listed as either Mint or Near Mint. None have been better then good.
Even when I contacted the last seller and asked about condition, they still didn't describe the condition right.
Some sellers will say anything to sell and item for a higher price.
posted on March 28, 2001 07:51:02 PM
My most disappointing purchase was a $35 lot of Christmas jewelry I had bought to give as gifts to coworkers. When it arrived it was rattling around LOOSE in the box, no padding or wrapping at all. At least half of hte jewelry was damaged beyond repair. I emailed for a refund but the seller never responded. After I negged her I got several emails from people who had paid her and never received anything at all. I suppose I should be thankful I at least got SOMETHING for my money, and I'm going to try to resell what's left to recoup at least part of my loss.
My 2nd most disappointing purchase was my own fault. Seller listed a "refrigerator bottle" which was embossed with the name of an old fridge company. No pic. Stupid me assumed it was a genuine vintage item... when it arrived it was very obviously a "made in Taiwan" type of reproduction. It went straight into the garbage, and I will NEVER bid on an item without a good picture again.
posted on March 28, 2001 08:03:33 PM
My mother purchased a lot of plus sized clothing. The seller said it was great stuff, she had outgrown. Said there were dress slacks (which turned out to be 1970s polyester pants), the "dress shirts" were like rags, and the pantsuit was stained (she said no stains).
I was engaged at the time so I bought a lot of kitchen stuff from the same "lady". It was greasy dirty plastic stuff from the 1970s. I had to take it to the garage until trash day because it reeked of rotten grease.
The clothes smelled like they had been stored in a musty garage for about 10 years (and looked it -- there was even fading from the sun.)
That was $100 down the drain!
Then my mother wanted a laptop. The seller said it was old (3.1) but mom only needed it for word processing. It came not working, and a computer tech spent 3 hours fixing it (I'm a friend so he didn't charge, but would have been almost $150 to fix) she sent no software with it (not even for windows), and when I told her it was illegal to sell a computer without the accompaning software she called me a liar.
posted on March 28, 2001 08:57:43 PM
Ohhh, don't get me started.
But I want to know what's with sellers these days? Do they HAVE to dish out insults along with their refunds?
On those occasions that I've had to return things because they weren't as described, I give absolutely GLOWING feedback to sellers who handle refunds/returns well -- better than if the item would have been satisfactory to start with. Let's face it -- sometimes damage is accidentally overlooked by sellers. I've done it myself and do what I can to make the situation right. And I think that's because I'm also a buyer and know how *I* want to be treated as a buyer. (Hmmm, oughta be a rule maybe you have to buy too???? Just a thought.)
Anyway, bought a glass item the seller said had a "ding" on it. Uh huh. Item arrived with 3 cracks in it. It was very well packed, lotsa peanuts, so we did not, and do not, think there was any damage in transit. Seller wanted it shipped back, which we did. Here's his response:
[i]We have received at our location the broken XXXX. It IS NOT
being returned in the condition it was sent! It was NOT broken when we
packed it here! We have contacted our postmaster regarding the breakage.
She states that it would have been immeasurably easier and less complicated
if you had taken the vase to your post office to recover the insurance.
Now, we are processing the claim from this end and they will send you
paperwork to verify the breakage.[/i]
WE pack very well too, lotsa peanuts in oversized boxes and have never had a claim (except one thing that went permanently AWOL). I suppose it's possible that the box got jarred badly enough that the cracks turned into a broken glass item, but I dunno. I'm wondering if he's trying to turn this into an insurance claim for his own financial benefit.
Bought another glass item that was described as "no chips, no cracks." The underside of the base had two chips on the edge, one small but bigger than a fleabite, the other fairly significant. Wrote the seller and this is his response:
[i]Simply return it, we'll check for our mark, because our close up photos show
no damage other than wear, and refund your monies.[/i]
Maybe I'm oversensitive, but I don't see a reason to insinuate that I may be trying to switch items on a VERY small (under $10) sale. Heck, if I had a damaged item I wanted to switch, at the price I paid, I'd just keep the newly purchased one and trash the other.
I guess I should just be happy these two sellers are actually going to refund my money, but I just think the insults are unnecessary. Neither seller is going to get feedback from me at all. And once their checks have cleared, I may take the opportunity to tell them why. In the meantime, they've gone on my "don't bid on" list.
posted on March 28, 2001 09:02:13 PM
I bought my soon to be 21 year old son a book of bar jokes off ebay. The picture looked really cute on the auction. Well, it turned out that the picture was just a decoration for the auction because I got two pieces of white paper stapled together with bar jokes printed on them that were obviously done on a copy machine.
posted on March 28, 2001 09:55:32 PM
I've never had a bad auction purchase at eBay! My worst auction purchase was the one and only time I bought something at Amazon Auctions. I bought a video, it came broken, the seller was nasty and then actually threatened me after I left negative feedback! So then I start to read the seller's feedback and see he is so despised that people started a webpage about him! I wrote to Amazon - they could not have cared less.
posted on March 28, 2001 10:57:29 PM
On a darker note...
I once purchased the cutest looking little puppy on Ebay. I couldn't wait to get him. I even sprung for 2 day delivery.
When the package arrived, 2 of the dog's legs were broken. Not surprising, since the seller only used about 5 cents worth of bubble wrap.
Second worst was a little bronze figure of a man holding a squirrel on the end of a bamboo spear. The back was all tarnished and the squirrel's tail was broken off. Of course there was no mention of this in the description.
posted on March 28, 2001 11:55:34 PM
The most disappointing thing I've purchased on Ebay was a lot of 9 Beanie Babies.
I purchased them for resale to some local customers and at the time they were selling pretty well. By the time I actually received them (1 month later) they were worth less than I paid for them. Time sensitive market.....
posted on March 29, 2001 01:09:44 AM
My most disappointing purchase was a rather pricey piece of china, and it arrived with some areas of the metal trim worn off. (It was one of my first purchases, and I didn't know enough to have e-mailed the seller about the condition of it.) If I remember correctly, that seller was a newbie as well. I bid on it (and kept it) because I thought it was extremely unusual, but I have since learned that it regularly appears. Sigh.
posted on March 29, 2001 01:23:20 AM
Something I posted about over a year ago, and to this day it is still my worst transaction ever. It too involved a lot of vintage/costume jewelry. There were MANY photos to go with, lots of description and what I thought was a detailing of the flaws present. Boy was I wrong!
Neither the seller nor the photos conveyed the fact that the *star* piece of the whole lot, a stunning girandole brooch with emerald and clear rhinestones, had one of the drops completely broken off and rewired back on! There were several other *best designer* pieces with yellowing/bad stones that simply didn't show up in the photos.
My initial e-mails to her were very polite but it seemed nothing I said went well. She became extremely defensive and hostile, initially promised to make things right to the point I actually returned the bad pieces, then she mailed them back to me because she decided she didn't like me.
posted on March 29, 2001 02:07:59 AM
About 2 years ago, I bought a very nice 1930's GE Cathedral Style Chiming Clock. I got it for a fairly decent bid. The picture was very nice, and the ad claimed that it kept perfect time. The cabinet appeared to be in nice shape, so I bid on it.
When I got the clock, it appeared as the auction stated. No scratches on the cabinet, and the face of the clock was in great shape. So far, so good. But when I plugged it in, it had the loudest hum. It sounded like a freight train speeding by. The bearings in the motor must of been worn out. This was not mentioned in the ad. A lesson learned here. The next time I was interested in a clock, that was one of the questions that I asked.
I still have the clock, displays very nicely, and maybe someday, I'll get it fixed!
posted on March 29, 2001 03:20:31 AM
Have had many wonderful purchases on ebay-I ask pointed questions before bidding, assuming the seller is less than forthright. Some sellers never reply, others will. I'm always very businesslike but feel I've put them "on notice" that I will hold them responsible. The most disappointing purchase turned out to be a finely engraved small piece of Orrefors glass. It was the nicest form I had ever seen and the engraving was exceptional but the seller (a dealer) forgot to mention the ring of "sick glass" that extended around the entire bowl rendering the item near useless. This is something I found very difficult to believe a dealer would miss but that was her claim. Refund, including shipping both ways, was issued.
I left her positive feedback describing how well she handled a problem transaction.
posted on March 29, 2001 03:21:25 AM
A pair of NWT Spiegel jeans. They were described as perfect. This one pair of jeans had 2 stains (looked like blood), a rip and a hole. Must have been some kind of melee in that store! No response from seller at all.
posted on March 29, 2001 03:35:22 AM
Once I bought what was suppossed to be some Victorian style nudie pictures. It turned out it was Meg(eBay chief) in a see through nightie rolling around in a pile of money with a caption that read "Oh, they are all suckers!"
YUCK!
posted on March 29, 2001 04:04:20 AM
OK, before you flame me here, I know I was STUPID! But greed got the best of me. I won an auction for 38 pieces of Shawnee Corn King dinnerware. I knew the seller had 0 feed-back but we all started out that way! I requested to use escrow but she wouldn't hear of it. So I reluctedly sent check. All pieces were listed as MINT. In the meantime, she had listed 3 items. A silver set that WASN'T silver. So someone gave her a neg fo that. So now she's -1. I got the dishes alright. All 38 pieces wrapped loosely in newpaper and stuffed in one box. I can't believe 14 actually survived. I could see on the broken pieces old chips and hairlines. Mint, yeah. So now I'm waiting for $900.00 worth of insurance. I'm NOT holding my breath. Now she ended up with -2 feed-back and she informed me that she's was done with eBay. People were just too hard to please. I told her I thought that was a very good idea!
I've almost covered myself with sales of the 14 good pieces, but a lesson learned.
posted on March 29, 2001 04:34:09 AM
I bought a Hall China Stack set when I was fairly new to eBay. I got it for a very low price, even including shipping, so I wasn't terribly upset, but the piece is bright red, and on closer inspection, it looks like paint instead of true color and glaze.
Now, I was new, and hardly paid anything, so I didn't pursue anything with this seller. It sits on a high cupboard and looks fine, but I still think someone painted it red.
Speaking of that, does anyone know if it would be possible to get that paint off? If the piece is yellow, as I suspect it is, I would actually like it all the more.
posted on March 29, 2001 05:00:52 AM
If it is in fact, yellow underneath, it probably is glazed. In that case paint remover shouldn't hurt the yellow. Maybe someone painted it just to go with new kitchen decor. If you try this, don't hate me if it doesn't work! You could try a very small area in the back to see what happens.
posted on March 29, 2001 05:24:32 AM
Mine isn't as bad as some of the transactions you all have had, but it was still disappointing to me. I bought a great Carole Little sweater vest. Mint condition, etc. etc. Well, when I got it, it fit, and it was in mint condition, but it had little shiney things on it. They are part of the sweater, but they didn't show up in the pic, and she made no mention of them. Like I said, it's not as bad as most of these, but, shiney things don't go with my wardrobe. And I have nver worn the sweater, which I otherwise love!
posted on March 29, 2001 07:33:38 AM
A Latin textbook. VG+ condition turned out to mean that the first 100 pages had scribbling from the former owner on them.
A chenille bath set. Excellent condition - uh huh, except no string in the commode lid cover. Do you have any idea what a pain it is to replace those strings? The sellers do, that's why they don't replace them themselves. small grr...
posted on March 29, 2001 08:42:00 AM
I buy quite a bit on ebay too. Most of my purchases are for my favorite collectible, old Fenton hobnail opalescent glass. Except for one really hard to deal with glass seller (meaning no people skills), I've really only had one very disappointing purchase.
Anyway, in early 1997, I was trying to recover from a devastating fire that took not only our house but 95% of everything in it. I was buying a lot of older Hallmarks to replace (only physically, not emotionally) what I lost. I bid on a little santa claus in MINT condition and paid a fairly high price for it. When I received it, it looked great in the box. When I took it out and turned it around, it looked like it had been scorched on the other side. At the time, I was very disappointed, but had other things to take my time so I never emailed the seller. I felt very taken advantage of at the time and if I stir up those old feelings, still do. However, I have never bid on any of his items again and when I hang the santa claus on the tree, it's way in the back with the good side showing.
posted on March 29, 2001 08:43:15 AM
Mine was a cheese dish that smelled gross. I came here for help and SMW explained that it was crawling with colonies of bacteria and suggested how I could get rid of the "little buggers". It freaked me out and I tossed it in the garbage.
posted on March 29, 2001 08:55:08 AM
Two items come to mind. A beaded necklace that broke the minute I took it out of the box. A fake leather coat that was peeling, stained and smelled of something I couldn't even begin to describe.
I use to buy clothes on Ebay but I stopped because the items I received reeked of smoke or had kitty fur all over them.
posted on March 29, 2001 10:06:03 AM
barbarake - Why don't you list the coat which you can't wear in the correct size and sell it to someone smaller who will enjoy it and you can recover some of your money?
posted on March 29, 2001 10:14:35 AM
Husband bids on and wins a lovely ginger jar style "vase"...porcelain, very pretty.
Seller emails after the auction to say "Oh.. there's a little lid that goes with this! I'll send it"
Item arrives, and is obviously not a vase, but an URN.. still containing some residue of ashes, and on the inside of the lid is a name "Fred"
Ewwwwwwwwww!
Seller writes after reciept of item and says that there was a mistake in selling it and wants it back.. NO problem!
"Fred" is on his way home...
